Heat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/ gas 6. Put the 100g softened butter in a bowl, then stir in the mustard and chopped tarragon. Season with salt and pepper, then mix well. Rub three quarters of the tarragon and mustard butter all over the chicken and under the skin over the breast meat (loosen the skin by pushing your fingers under by the neck cavity).

Melt the remaining tarragon and mustard butter in a small saucepan over a medium heat. Put the baby turnips in a bowl and pour the melted butter on top. Toss to coat.

To make the potato stuffing, melt the 30g butter in a saucepan over a medium heat. Stir in the onions, celery and garlic, then cover and fry for 2 minutes. Remove the lid and stir in the potatoes, thyme and breadcrumbs. Season with salt and pepper, then cook for 5 minutes, stirring often so it doesn’t burn. Remove from the heat and allow to cool before stuffing the chicken.

Stuff the chicken cavity with the potato stuffing (see tip) until two thirds full. This will allow hot air to circulate inside the cavity so the chicken will cook properly. Put the remaining stuffing in an ovenproof dish and bake alongside the chicken.

Put the buttered turnips in a roasting tin with the sprigs of tarragon and sit the chicken on top. Roast for 1 hour 20 minutes, basting regularly with the buttery juices, or until cooked (a digital probe thermometer pushed into the thickest part of the meat should read 65°C). Take the dish of stuffing out after an hour and keep warm.

When the chicken is cooked, transfer to a lipped board and cover with foil. Rest for 15 minutes before carving. Serve with the baby turnips, stuffing and seasonal veg.

METHOD:
Rinse the asparagus is cold water to rid it of any sand, then snap off the woody ends and roughly chop them. Put them into a pan with the stock, bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 15 minutes, then strain and set aside.

Bring 2 small pans of water to the boil. Add some salt to one pan, drop in the asparagus tips and cook for 2 minutes until just tender. Drain, refresh under cold water and set aside. Add the vinegar and pinch of salt to the second pan and reduce the heat to low. Break one of the eggs into a teacup. Swirl the water with a spoon to create a whirlpool, drop in the egg and leave it to poach for 3 minutes, then carefully remove with a slotted spoon to a plate. Repeat with the remaining eggs, bringing the water back to the boil and then lowering again each time. Leave the poaching water over a low heat.

Cut off the really dark green leaves from the leeks (and discard or save for stock) and thinly slice the remainder. Melt 100g of the butter in a large pan, add the asparagus stalks, sliced leeks and celery, cover and cook over a low heat for 10 minutes until soft but not browned.

Uncover, stir in the flour and cook for 1 more minute. Stir in the asparagus-flavoured stock, cover again and simmer for 10 minutes until the vegetables are tender. Remove from the heat, cool slightly and then liquidise the soup in batches until very smooth. Pass through a sieve back into a clean pan, bring back to a simmer and stir in the cream and some seasoning to taste.

Melt the remaining butter. Lower the poached eggs back into the simmering water and leave for 30 seconds, then remove and drain briefly on kitchen paper. Ladle the soup into warmed bowls and scatter over the asparagus tips. Place a poached egg into the centre of each bowl, season the top of each one with a little salt and pepper then drizzle over the melted butter and serve.

Brush a large non-stick frying pan with the sunflower oil, using the tip of a pastry brush. Add the sausages to the pan and cook over a medium heat for 10 minutes, turning every now and then until nicely browned on all sides.

Meanwhile, trim the celery and peel the carrots and cut them into diagonal slices about 1.5cm/½in thick.

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.

Add the onions to the frying pan and cook with the sausages for 6-8 minutes, stirring regularly until softened and lightly browned.

Trim the chicken thighs of any visible fat – we find a good pair of kitchen scissors does the job well – then cut the thighs in half.

Add the garlic and chicken pieces to the pan with the sausages and onions and cook for 3-4 minutes, turning the chicken twice until coloured all over.

Transfer everything to a large flameproof casserole dish.

Stir in the gammon, celery, carrots, tomatoes, red wine and 300ml/½ pint cold water, then sprinkle over the caster sugar and chilli flakes. Stir in the bay leaf and thyme and season with lots of ground black pepper.

Bring the cassoulet to a simmer on the hob, then cover with a lid and transfer to the oven. Cook for 45 minutes.

Take the casserole out of the oven and stir in all the beans. Cover with the lid again and put the dish back in the oven for another 30 minutes.

Just before the cassoulet is ready, prepare the garnish. Chop the parsley roughly and toss with the orange zest in a small bowl.

Serve large portions of the cassoulet in deep plates or wide bowls with a good sprinkling of the zesty parsley garnish on each one.

Cassoulet (French pronunciation: ​[ka.su.lɛ], from Occitan caçolet [kasuˈlet]) is a rich, slow-cooked casserole originating in the south of France, containing meat (typically pork sausages, goose, duck and sometimes mutton), pork skin (couennes) and white haricot beans.
The dish is named after its traditional cooking vessel, the cassole, a deep, round, earthenware pot with slanting sides.

You can read the recipe by clicking on the link above. Not posting his recipe here as there’s a specific request not to.

Had a lunch party yesterday where i made baked eggs with creamy leeks, mediterranean fish stew, chicken with chorizo and cabbage and potato gratin. As a result, I had loads of leftover leeks and celery, and so I went googling to see what I could do with these ingredients. First recipe that cropped up was this Greek dish. Really love this recipe for the colours and flavours. Reminds me of a milder version of a chinese dish – preserved vegetables pork.

What I didn’t do, which I suspect may have had a huge impact on the taste is to use peperoncini. I think the taste will be much stronger with this. Instead, I used some mixed peppers in extra virgin oil which I got from Waitrose. Will try it next time, if i do get hold of it.

Bring a large pot to medium-high heat. Pour in the olive oil and add all the chopped and sliced ingredients (including the chorizo) into to pot. Add curry powder and mix with a wooden spoon.

Cook for about 10 minutes or until the carrots have softened but are not falling apart and the onions are translucent in colour.

Pour 1.8L boiling water into a large jug over the two stock cubes. Stir to dissolve the cubes and add to the vegetables. Give soup a good stir and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover pot with a lid and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the sweet potato is cooked through. Season with salt and pepper. Stir and allow soup to cool slightly. Using a food processor or hand blender, blend soup in batches until smooth.

Divide into bowls and top with finely diced chilli, salt and pepper.

Ultimate combination of sweet and savoury! And it’s so easy to make. As you can see I choose not to blend it till it’s smooth because: (i) i like rustic soups; and (ii) I think it’s a waste of chorizo to blend it! I want to taste the chorizo in its full glory!

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees. Loosen the skin of each chicken portion, without removing it, to make a pocket. Divide the cheese into four and push one quarter underneath the skin of each chicken portion in an even layer.

Cut the peppers into similar side chunky pieces. Quarter the tomatoes and slice the celery sticks.

Heat 2 tbsp of the oil in a large shallow, flameproof casserole. Cook the onions and garlic for 4 minutes until they are soft and golden, stirring frequently.

Add the peppers and celery to the casserole and cook for a further 5 minutes.

Stir in the tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, oregano and balsamic vinegar. Season well.

Place the chicken on top of the vegetables, drizzle over a little more olive oil, and season with salt and paprika. Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes or until the chicken is golden and cooked through.

This is one of my go-to chicken dishes. Been cooking it for almost a decade now (although have to admit I still get confused about the amount of time it takes to cook the chicken every now and then but that’s really because I am not used to the new oven…) The combination of the cream cheese and the crispy chicken skin is always heavenly.

I have modified this recipe; key thing is that I prefer using chicken thighs/legs rather than the breast. Also I tend to use a lot more paprika.

Get a large ovenproof saucepan hot and add a splash of olive oil. ear the oxtail until brown on all sides, then add the celery, onion, carrot and leek. Cook gently until golden brown and add the wine and your crushed spices, cinnamon, chilli, tomato puree and tins of tomatoes. Top up with a little water – you just need enough to make sure all the meat is covered- and put a lid on. Put the pan in the oven for 4 to 4 1/2 hours, until the meat is falling off the bone. Remove from the oven and lift the meat out of the stew. When cool enough to hand, shred all the meat off the bones. Pick through the meat with your fingers to make sure that no bony bits remain, then put the meat back in the pot. Add the oregano and simmer for 15 minutes and season to taste. Fry the sage leaves in the butter until crispy and dark green, then drain them on kitchen paper. Serve the stew with some fried sage leaves.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Remove any skin and bones from the salmon and cut the flesh into bite-sized pieces. Heat the oil in a flameproof casserole and when it is hot add the leek, shallot, carrot and celery and saute gently for 10 minutes. Add the sugar and garlic, cook for a further minute and then add the fish and season with salt and pepper. Pour over the soy sauce, add 4 tbsp water, cover and bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Remove and allow to rest for 5 minutes. Divide the rice between 2 bowls and ladle over the salmon hot pot.

I am not a huge fan of Wagamama; it’s useful when you need a ramen fix but the ramen there is nowhere as good as the ones you get in singapore and it must be galaxies apart from ones in Japan. That said, this is quite a decent salmon recipe and although it probably doesn’t come close to the real salmon hot pots in japan, it does taste quite good (maybe because I cooked it).

The key thing to note here is the soy sauce; ideally it should be Japanese soy sauce which is not as salty as the Chinese one, and it adds a certain sweetness to the hot pot. If you are using Chinese soy sauce, remember to control the amount of it as it can easily spiral out of control and you get a overly salty salmon hot pot. I suggest not adding salt if you are using Chinese soy sauce and you should still use less of it as written in the recipe.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Place chicken thighs in a shallow baking dish large enough to hold them in a single layer. Remove the rind from the lemon with a zester. Reserve half and add the remainder to the chicken. Squeeze the lemon juice over the chicken toss to coat well and leave to stand for 10 minutes.

Transfer the chicken to a roasting tin. Add the remaining lemon zest, olive oil, garlic, onions and half of the lemon thyme. Toss gently and leave for about 20 minutes.

Cover the potatoes with lightly salted water and bring to the boil. Cook for 2 minutes, then drain well and add to the chicken. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Roast the chicken in the preheated oven for 50 minutes, turning frequently and basting, or until the chicken is cooked. Just before the end of cooking time, discard the lemon thyme and add fresh sprigs. Add the olives and stir.